Chinese cryptocurrency miners dump GPUs at second-hand trade site موقع

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Chinese miners have started dumping used GPUs in the second-hand market in the wake of China’s crackdown on bitcoin mining.

Over the past month and a half, there has been an increasing number of new posts selling batches of GPUs on Xianyu, which is one of the largest China flea market apps owned by Alibaba.

The screen recording below shows one of these posts along with dozens of similar ads recommended at the end of the page, most of which have been out since mid-May.

Although the Chinese State Council’s campaign suspension was specifically on bitcoin trading and mining activities, provincial governments have targeted the broader crypto-mining sector by ordering power plants to cut off their supplies to “virtual currency mining” farms. (Here’s a timeline of the series of regulatory events that led to a significant surge in the supply of Bitcoin ASIC miners on the second-hand market.)

As a result, GPU mining farms have also been affected even though they are less power consuming than bitcoin mining facilities. Notably, Ethereum’s hash rate has also fallen by more than 20% since China suspended the crackdown in May as miners went out of business. Much of the hashing power on the Ethereum network relied on GPUs as well as Ethash ASIC miners.

While not every vendor on Xianyu said they were crypto miners, pictures of the GPU shelves betray their mining operations.

The prices listed in these sales can vary greatly from each other as they all use GPUs. But they came as a complete reversal of the market situation in February when the supply of desktop GPUs was so low that it forced Ethereum miners to turn to gaming laptops with integrated GPUs (causing prices to skyrocket across the board). )

fiery sale for GPUs

For example, one owner tried to sell a bunch of RTX 3060 GPUs from various brands with an initial price range of 2,200 to 2,899 yuan ($336 to $450) each. But the owner cut it to 1,760 yuan ($270) after more than 60 potential buyers bid much cheaper.

“A personal transaction can only be accepted for purchases of large quantities and can be traded once after the facility is completely vacated,” the owner said in the post with a picture of the mining farm facility.

Another GPU owner who posted an announcement in the past 30 days said the RTX 30 series GPUs are for sale at a 50% discount but that buyers need to pick them up at a power plant along the Yarlung Tsangpo River

A third seller posted an ad a month ago trying to liquidate a rack of 3060 gaming laptops with integrated GPUs for about $1,000 each.

But several users commented on the thread that even half the asking price was too high and they would only consider if the owner could sell for less than $461 each.

It seems that some companies are still mining

Meanwhile, there is a sign that some smaller bitcoin mining farms in Sichuan are still powered by power supplied directly from hydroelectric power stations.

Over the past 30 days, there have been at least two owners advertising their bitcoin mining hosting services on Xianyu at an electricity asking price of 0.37 yuan (or $0.057) per kilowatt-hour.

The owner wrote in the description: “Power is available as long as you can still watch this ad.” “Supplied directly from power stations. Look for better equipment from Bitmain’s AntMiner S9, such as T17, WhatsMiner M20, M21s, InnoSilicon’s T2, etc.”

A second hosting service provider looking for mining clients said the facility is built inside their hydroelectric power station.

As explained by The Block, this direct supply model has long been a common but gray practice in China’s Sichuan and Yunnan water provinces as it bypasses the Chinese state grid as a medium for power distribution.

Since Sichuan ordered the state grid to cut off power supplies to regulated bitcoin mining facilities in the province, some private power plant owners have begun offering to sell their infrastructure in Xianyu.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. all rights are save. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.

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